I've been seeing all these different "Natural Solutions" and "Home Remedies" postings on facebook and I decided to try some.
Ant Beds In My Yard
I read that you could use cornmeal on ant beds instead of poison. The ants carry the cornmeal back into the nest and they all eat it and it expands inside them and kills them.
I did this. I sprinkled the cornmeal on in the morning before I left for work. I came home that evening to moths, birds, bees, gnats, etc. all fighting over the cornmeal. The ants disappeared for a few days but I wouldn't come out of my house either if predators were outside my door.
Once the meal was gone, the ants came back out. Had they gotten a chance to eat some, who knows, it might have worked. Not worth the drawing of other pests for me.
I might try pouring apple cider vinegar down the entrance holes to the nest next. That is also supposed to work... but doesn't apple cider vinegar cure all things?
Also, some say that if you swap a shovelful of ants from one nest to another and then vice versa, the ants will kill each other.
Also, in our city and county they used straight clorox on the ant beds in the parks and school yards. That didn't work for me either. Maybe it only works on certain kinds of ants.
**Writing about this brought a funny memory to mind. My husband once told me that he wouldn't eat meatloaf made with oatmeal because when you ate it, the oatmeal would expand in your stomach and cause problems. He couldn't understand why I laughed so hard. When I told him that after cooking in meat juices for an hour that there wasn't any absorption power left in the oatmeal, he was embarrassed and we both laughed. It's funny the things we are told as a child that we never think through for ourselves but believe throughout our lifetime... must be that "child-like" faith.
Weeds Growing In Cracks On My Porch And Sidewalk
I know people normally use "Roundup" and similar expensive, poison products, but I'm on a budget that doesn't take things like that into consideration. I also hate to use poison if I don't have to.
I put full strength "white" vinegar into a spray bottle and sprayed the weeds on the porch to test it before I just wasted the vinegar on the side walk.
Knowing it wasn't supposed to rain, I sprayed them in the evening, just before dark. The next morning the weeds were laying flat on the porch. The next day, they turned brown and I swept them away. I was very pleased with the vinegar remedy.
That morning I sprayed the weeds/grass growing through the cracks in the sidewalk. The next day, they had turned brown but I couldn't sweep them away. I sprayed again and was able to sweep them away the next day. Those weeds required total saturation in a larger area but it did work after 2 applications and it's much cheaper than Roundup.
Ant Beds In My Yard
I read that you could use cornmeal on ant beds instead of poison. The ants carry the cornmeal back into the nest and they all eat it and it expands inside them and kills them.
I did this. I sprinkled the cornmeal on in the morning before I left for work. I came home that evening to moths, birds, bees, gnats, etc. all fighting over the cornmeal. The ants disappeared for a few days but I wouldn't come out of my house either if predators were outside my door.
Once the meal was gone, the ants came back out. Had they gotten a chance to eat some, who knows, it might have worked. Not worth the drawing of other pests for me.
I might try pouring apple cider vinegar down the entrance holes to the nest next. That is also supposed to work... but doesn't apple cider vinegar cure all things?
Also, some say that if you swap a shovelful of ants from one nest to another and then vice versa, the ants will kill each other.
Also, in our city and county they used straight clorox on the ant beds in the parks and school yards. That didn't work for me either. Maybe it only works on certain kinds of ants.
**Writing about this brought a funny memory to mind. My husband once told me that he wouldn't eat meatloaf made with oatmeal because when you ate it, the oatmeal would expand in your stomach and cause problems. He couldn't understand why I laughed so hard. When I told him that after cooking in meat juices for an hour that there wasn't any absorption power left in the oatmeal, he was embarrassed and we both laughed. It's funny the things we are told as a child that we never think through for ourselves but believe throughout our lifetime... must be that "child-like" faith.
Weeds Growing In Cracks On My Porch And Sidewalk
I know people normally use "Roundup" and similar expensive, poison products, but I'm on a budget that doesn't take things like that into consideration. I also hate to use poison if I don't have to.
I put full strength "white" vinegar into a spray bottle and sprayed the weeds on the porch to test it before I just wasted the vinegar on the side walk.
Knowing it wasn't supposed to rain, I sprayed them in the evening, just before dark. The next morning the weeds were laying flat on the porch. The next day, they turned brown and I swept them away. I was very pleased with the vinegar remedy.
That morning I sprayed the weeds/grass growing through the cracks in the sidewalk. The next day, they had turned brown but I couldn't sweep them away. I sprayed again and was able to sweep them away the next day. Those weeds required total saturation in a larger area but it did work after 2 applications and it's much cheaper than Roundup.
